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MOSCOW — In a possible sign that political tensions are easing in Ukraine, President Viktor F.
Yanukovich pardoned the country’s second-most prominent political prisoner yesterday, but his
intentions concerning his biggest rival, who is also in custody, remained unclear.

The pardoned prisoner, Yuri V. Lutsenko, is a former interior minister whose arrest in December
2010 on charges that he had abused his office raised concerns in the European Union and the United
States that Ukraine’s democracy was at risk. Those worries were heightened the following year when
the police arrested Yanukovich’s biggest rival, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and
the leader of the political opposition.

The pardon decree, published by Ukraine’s government, laid out a host of factors that went into
the decision, including Lutsenko’s former service to the state, his family affairs and his behavior
while in prison.